Published Feb 4, 2026, 12:31 PM EST
Rotten Tomatoes | Letterboxd | Metacritic
Carolyn Jenkins is a voracious consumer of film and television. She graduated from Long Island University with an MFA in Screenwriting and Producing where she learned the art of character, plot, and structure. The best teacher is absorbing media and she spends her time reading about different worlds from teen angst to the universe of Stephen King.
Sign in to your Collider account
Good sci-fi isn’t necessarily hard to come by, but there is a difference between good and masterful. Since the days of Battlestar Galactica, fans have been looking for another series that could hold the same weight. The Syfy series has aged perfectly, hammering home philosophical ideas and compelling themes. After its conclusion in 2009, viewers were seeking out a new immersive series and finally got it half a decade later.
The Expanse premiered in 2015, and even though it was vastly different from the more fantastical Battlestar Galactica, it was just what sci-fi fans had been waiting for. The show was adapted from James S.A. Corey’s engaging series. Across nine novels, The Expanse tells the story of Captain James Holden (Steven Strait) and his ragtag crew of the Rocinante. Readers have yearned for a live-action adaptation of the series, and they were not disappointed when these beloved characters made their television debut.
‘The Expanse’ is the Best Portrayal of Hard Sci-Fi
When The Expanse first premiered on Syfy, it felt fresh for a reason. As opposed to big-budget franchises like Star Wars, the series takes a more grounded approach to the genre. The Expanse takes place in the near future, and for the first portion of the series, it only takes place in Earth’s solar system. At the time, Mars and the Asteroid Belt had been colonized, leading to friction between the planets. Mars, wanting freedom from Earth, has become militarized, while the people on the Belt have suffered under the oppression of Earth and Mars.
These political dynamics establish a series that is one of the most realistic shows in sci-fi. The Cold War between Mars and Earth sets up a compelling story set in space. James Holden is an Earther who lives a simple life as an officer on the ice hauler, the Canterbury. The work is dangerous as he interacts with Belters and Martians alike. The Canterbury mines ice and takes it to Ceres, one of the many space stations on the Belt. Here, Belters live impoverished, barely entitled to their own water. These tensions introduce a solar system-wide crisis when Mars is blamed for nuking the Canterbury.
The mystery of who really blew up the Canterbury lasts a season, which is populated with fascinating characters who become a found family. This all would have worked well on its own, but The Expanse grounded the series in the realities of space travel that are often not portrayed on screen. Many sci-fi films and television shows feature artificial gravity when characters are traveling through space. In The Expanse, the only way to create gravity is through thrust.
Holden and his crew make use of “mag boots,” which magnetize them to the floor when the ship is not under thrust. This is just one detail that makes the series so immersive. The dangers of space travel are also explored as characters have the potential to have a stroke if they experience excessive G-forces. The space battles in The Expanse are made much more fascinating when taking into account the physics of this world. The mechanics of the series are a joy to watch, but they are all held together by the glue of the beloved characters.
‘The Expanse’ Is the Ultimate Found Family Story
The Expanse is engaging because of the politics and hard sci-fi, but the series wouldn’t be half as enjoyable if it weren’t for the characters. Holden is joined by three other crewmates in his search for justice in the solar system. After Canterbury is attacked, Holden; the pilot, Alex (Cas Anvar); the mechanic, Amos (Wes Chatham); and the Belter engineer, Naomi (Dominique Tipper), are the only ones to survive.
In the beginning, Holden is the best example of a reluctant hero who, more than once, refuses the call to action. Each of the remaining crew members is a loner in their own way, trying to find a way to escape their past. Through crewing their warship, the Rocinante, they come to love each other like family.
Holden and Naomi fall for each other, despite the secrets she keeps. The engineer was once part of the Outer Planets Alliance, a rebellious group that is often viewed as terrorists. Alex is revealed to be a Martian, while Amos is a traumatized Earther who constantly seeks to find his moral compass. Despite all of their hang-ups, they form the indomitable crew of the Roci and end up saving the solar system on more than a few occasions.
The Expanse is sci-fi done right, but it didn’t always have the chance to succeed. Syfy canceled the series after three seasons, just as it was hitting its peak. Luckily, Prime Video stepped in and the show was allowed to finish on its own terms. The series remains a great example of realism in sci-fi and continues to connect with audiences.
Release Date 2015 - 2022-00-00
Showrunner Naren Shankar, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby
Directors Breck Eisner, Jeff Woolnough, David Grossman, Kenneth Fink, Rob Lieberman, Terry McDonough, Thor Freudenthal, Bill Johnson, David Petrarca, Jennifer Phang, Mikael Salomon, Sarah Harding, Marisol Adler, Anya Adams, Nick Gomez, Simon Cellan Jones
Writers Georgia Lee, Robin Veith, Hallie Lambert, Matthew Rasmussen, Ty Franck, Naren Shankar, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Daniel Abraham, Dan Nowak
English (US) ·